The Relation Between Baseline Slow Wave Sleep and the Slow Wave Sleep Response to Alcohol in Alcoholics

Abstract

Important advances in the psychophysiological studies of sleep, triggered by the breakthroughs of Aserinsky and Kleitman (1953) and Dement and Kleitman (1957), led to investigations of the possible relevance of such studies to psychopathology. In alcoholics, striking departures from normal sleep psychophysiology were observed during and following acute intoxication and withdrawal (see reviews by Johnson, 1971, Gross et al., 1971, Williams and Salamy, 1972 and Gross et al., 1974). The disturbances observed in alcoholics involved the rhythmicity and composition of sleep. Prominent among the disturbances of sleep composition were those involving Slow Wave Sleep (SWS).

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